The Matches is an American pop punk band formed in 1997 in Oakland, California, United States. The band is composed of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Shawn Harris, lead guitarist and backup vocalist Jonathan Devoto, bassist Justin San Souci, and drummer Matt Whalen. The Matches have released three studio albums and are currently unsigned after their contract with Epitaph Records expired.

On July 9, 2009, the Matches announced on their MySpace and Facebook pages that they were taking a "hiatus", saying that, "our time to start new projects has come".[5] On June 17, 2010 Shawn confirmed to Triple J that he had left the band. The Matches announced a one-time reunion show with the original lineup in May 2014.[6] The show sold out, as did an additional eight shows and a following tour in Australia.[6] The band announced additional reunion dates and new songs in 2015.

The band was formed as "The Locals" in 1997 by Justin San Souci, Matt Whalen, Matt Esposito, and Shawn Harris. At that time, all four members of the band were at Bishop O'Dowd high school. Matt Esposito then left the band to enroll in the US Naval Academy, and Henry Dietzel was recruited to take Matt's place. Dietzel remained with the band until late 2001 and upon leaving he was replaced by Jon Devoto. In those early years, the band played ska music—creating songs like "People on the Block", "Studio 5866", and others.

The band gained notoriety for "commo-promo", or commotion promotion, in which they would bring their acoustic guitars and play outside various Bay Area venues as concerts for larger acts were letting out. In conjunction with Oakland's (now defunct) iMusicast venue, the band started producing their own shows called L3 (Live, Loud & Local), which became a launchpad for many other Bay Area bands, as well as attracting such headlining acts as Link 80, Sugarcult, and Zebrahead.

Eventually, under the new name "The Matches", they self-released their debut album, E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals (this was assumed as an effort to publicly resent Yvonne Doll while avoiding libel). Then soon after they landed a record deal on Brett Gurewitz's Epitaph Records, although they had already previously released the album E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals without a recording contract, Epitaph Records re-released it. The version released by Epitaph lacks the song "Superman", but adds the songs "Borderline Creep" and "More Than Local Boys" instead. As well as slight changes to lyrics on "The Jack Slap Cheer", and the last untitled track (often referred to as "Track 11", "Abraham's Song", or "Scratched Out"). "Audio Blood" was featured in the video game Burnout 3: Takedown. The band also worked with rapper MC Lars on the song "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock".

The group finished their third album titled A Band In Hope and released it on March 18, 2008. This album again featured the collaboration of multiple producers: Nick Hexum, John Feldmann, Tim Armstrong, Miles Hurwitz, Mike Green, John Paulsen, and Paul Ruxton (Paulsen and Ruxton of the San Francisco producer-collective Talking House, to whom the album is dedicated in the CD liner notes).

The album was leaked on February 11, 2008. Harris wrote the following on the band's Blog in response to the leak.

On July 9, the band posted a bulletin on their MySpace saying that bassist Justin SanSouci will be leaving the band. The Matches asked people to send in demo tapes of themselves in order to audition for the recently opened role of a new bassist.[7]

The Matches are officially on hiatus as of July 9, 2009.[8] They played their final show to a sold out crowd at the Fillmore on August 23, 2009.[9] Some members of The Matches have embarked on personal side projects. Jonathan Devoto performed as a solo artist on May 17, 2009 at Berkeley, CA, playing three cover tracks and four originals. Devoto then formed the band Bird by Bird, which played their first live show at Blakes on Telegraph on August 21, 2009. Shawn Harris, along with Jake Grigg from Something with Numbers, started writing for a project called Maniac. Maniac has released several covers, a self-titled EP and, in 2010, they released their first full-length album, entitled Mania.[10] Dylan Rowe is currently touring with several bands as bassist, including: We Shot the Moon, Backseat Goodbye, and Bad Cop. On August 7, 2009, the band announced that they would be releasing a digital rarities album titled the Matches album 4, unreleased; graphics? title? or not needed? on August 12.[11]

In February 2014, the group began posting old photos under the hashtag #oldschoolmatches on their previously inactive official Facebook[12] and Twitter[13] accounts, leading fans to speculate about a reunion in the comments.

On May 12, 2014 the band released a YouTube video and announced a one-time reunion show at Slim's in San Francisco on November 8 in honor of the 10 year anniversary of E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals. Upon the show's quick sell-out, additional shows were added in Oakland, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and West Hollywood. In addition, Justin San Souci returned for the shows.[6]

The band completed an Australian tour in honor of the 10 year anniversary of E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals.[14] Later in the year they also released a two-song EP titled "Life of a Match"/"Crucial Comeback (Mary Claire)" and performed two shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco.[15] On February 1, 2016, the band announced a four-city tour during the summer covering their sophomore album Decomposer.